The Household of God (4)

God’s Will; Our ‘Future’
In the last post, I looked at various scriptures that say these things about the new covenant people of God:

They will reign with Christ
They will judge the world
They will judge angels
They will reign on earth [the ‘new earth’ maybe]
They will be priests of Christ and reign with Him
They will reign for ever and ever

These things are like fascinating little doors or hatches to me.  I can’t resist.  I want to explore and find out what is on the other side.  What do I find when I open them?  What do I experience when I enter into them?

According to John in his Revelation, there is to be a new heaven and a new earth:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true. (Revelation 21:1-5)

Apostle Peter also refers to this: “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:13)  In this future that God is making for His people, righteousness is at home – it abides there.

If eternal life is a reality; if God has in His plan a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness lives; if God adopts many sons into His family; if these ‘many sons’ share God’s entire inheritance along with Jesus; if those ‘many sons’ are, in God’s eyes, the bride of Christ; if there is a marriage supper of the Lamb; THEN I HAVE AN IMPORTANT QUESTION.

After the wedding breakfast – when the celebrations are done and everybody returns to their ‘usual occupation’ – what will that usual occupation look like?  What will we all be doing?  What is the on-going work of the Kingdom of God in the new heaven and new earth?

If we are reigning, reigning over what?  Reining over whom?  If this is eternity – no longer subject to time, space, matter restrictions – is it an eternal reign?  John did say ‘for ever’.

In all my years of listening to sermons and preachers, I have never heard anybody preach on this.  In all the hundreds of books I have read, I have never read any significant rendition of this aspect of the Christian life.

Frank Viola, in From Eternity to Here, makes a powerful point when he asserts that most believers live, think, preach and teach as if the story of God runs from Genesis 3 (the fall of man) to Revelation 20 (the judgement of man).  He powerfully reminds us there are two chapters (and a vast story) before the fall of man and there are two chapters (and another vast story) after the judgement.  For me, From Eternity to Here goes part of the way to revealing the vastness of God’s love and will for us – and leaves us still more to discover, I believe.

Obviously, there is no biblical text that states clearly what the answer to my question might look like, but there are – as I said – little doors or hatches to explore.  There are hints and glimpses of the occupation of eternity, but no definitive account.  And I believe we can understand some of the things in eternity future by revisiting eternity past.  I think Viola also makes this point well in his work.

I also believe we can begin to really fill out our understanding when we position ourselves with a view of eternity past and a view of eternity future, and then spend some time with God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) going over the central and defining words of the faith: Righteousness, Salvation, Redemption and Justification.

Behind the back of the wardrobe

When I did this some years ago – prompted and lead by the Holy Spirit – I found myself running and falling headlong into a vast and glorious panorama that still leaves me almost speechless.  At that point in my life, I decided to watch the video version of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe in the NARNIA series by C.S. Lewis.

A small child hides in a wardrobe as part of a game, for what is really only a few minutes of time.  But on the other side of the back of the wardrobe is a whole world and a whole other life – called NARNIA.  The King of NARNIA is the lion Aslan who, in the entire series, is the Christ character.  He is Jesus, ‘the Lion of the Tribe of Judah’.

I mention this because for me, the adventure of opening and going through these little hatches I mentioned is a story akin to what lies on the other side of the wardrobe door.  However, in my experience, few people actually notice the little hatches and windows in the walls behind the artefacts on display, let alone open them and then explore behind them.

One thing I have learned about myself over recent years is that, on my ‘fight or flight’ gauge, my natural setting is towards ‘fight’, not ‘flight’.  Put another way, when I am presented with something weird, new or strange, I am drawn towards it, not away from it.  As far back as I can remember, I tend towards investigation, not disgust or trepidation.

So, when Paul says we will ‘judge the world’, I want to know what that means; what that involves.  When he says we will ‘judge angels’, I want to investigate and know more.  When John says we will ‘reign with Christ’ and ‘reign on earth’, you can’t stop me from opening the hatch and going headlong into it to see where it takes me.

Why do I mention this here?  Because this is the story of the Household of God.  In the “Chronicles of Narnia”, the children who are innocently playing a family household game together find themselves ruling and reigning in Aslan’s Kingdom of Narnia.  The Kingdom of God belongs to ‘little children’ according to Jesus!

As we go through this series, we will discover together that there is more we can know and understand of God’s eternal kingdom than we have been lead to believe – much more.  And we will discover it is not just run-of-the-mill information; it is life-changing.  It gives reason and purpose to many of the things we do.  To go back to the analogy of the museum, we will see many of the artefacts differently as a result of seeing and understanding the elements of the background and the little windows.

Cheers,

Kevin.